Inconceivable
by When Rabbits Attack
Summary: Sterling seems to cling to the fantasy that they were once friends, or at the very least share some kind of common bond.    Spoilers to 2.15 "The Maltese Falcon Job" Takes place just after the ending.


**Disclaimer:** I own neither Leverage, nor the characters involved. They belong to someone far wittier than I. I make no money from these works, they are for entertainment purposes only.

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"Inconceivable"

He's aware of sounds, first. The steady beeping says he's alive, though not well. That awakes him to the pain which leads him to the remembrance that he's facing a horrifyingly sober future, alone. That is a good reason not to bother opening his eyes, he thinks.

There are other sounds too; standard hospital sounds, most of them, but some that don't fit at all. They're faint, but familiar. If he listens, he can almost make sense of words. _...Turned away from it all like a blind man, sat on a fence but it don't work. Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn; why - why - why ?_ He can sympathise with the sentiment. Curiosity kicks in, as he realises where he's heard those words before. Queen, he thinks, is not a normal hospital soundtrack.

He opens one eye, just barely. The source of the sound is beside him, a pair of headphones that he guesses cost almost as much as his first car. They're looped around the neck of a man slumped in the room's only chair, but even if Nate couldn't see his watcher's face, those personal speakers would be enough to identify him. He's only met one person who cares enough to spend that kind of cash on an accessory. _Sterling_

His nemesis is sleeping, but Nate doesn't dare move, not even to turn his head for a look around the room. He'd say Sterling sleeps like a cat, but cats aren't that easily disturbed. Disturb_ing_ is a good word for Sterling. In some ways, Parker is saner than Sterling. Parker wouldn't lock herself in the trunk of a car for an entire workweek or immerse herself in near-freezing mud for an entire day, without even a concrete prize to show for it. Sometimes, in his more paranoid moments, Nate wonders if the man isn't actually a spy for some alien race.

Other times, he's certain that Sterling isn't human. This is, in fact, the first time Nate has ever observed him actually asleep. He still doesn't have proof the man eats or drinks. No, Sterling is more the cause of drinking in other people. People don't notice that. They see a man with a glass in his hand, and they assume he's consuming the contents. More than one mark has found themselves drunkenly confessing their crimes to a suspiciously sober Sterling, having failed to notice the number of times he's kindly refilled their glass while the level of his hasn't wavered. Not that Nate had fallen for it. No, he had been drunk already. Sterling had merely been kind enough to help out.

He wonders why Sterling is even here. It can't be to stand guard, Nate realises, because the worst place to protect a person in this situation is in the same room. Nor can Nate simply get up and leave – yes, he could get out of the shackles attaching him to the bed easily enough, but he has a goddamned _hole_ where part of his chest used to be. Not only that, but there is no way Sterling would be caught dead sleeping on guard duty because he knows well enough that's exactly what can happen.

He has a dreadfully disturbing thought. Sterling seems to cling to the fantasy that they were once friends, or at the very least share some kind of common bond. He seemed genuinely upset at Nate's double-cross when normally he would have expected something like that. _Liars always lie_ is one of Sterling's mantras. That's one of the reasons Nate doesn't like him: he has too rigid a worldview in too many places. He simply can't believe that hacker, hitter, grifter and thief can band together to do good.

The song changes to one Nate doesn't recognise. That doesn't surprise him. He's always been more of a fan of the visual arts than the aural ones. It's just another thing they don't have in common.

And yet here Sterling is, with his guard down as much as it ever is. Those are, Nate knows, good, noise-eliminating headphones that have likely never been worn as intended. That would block his hearing and Sterling never likes to be deaf to the world around him. Nate's never met someone so bereft of trust. There's something broken in him. Maggie used to pity the man with no friends, but even she gave up trying to make a human being out of him.

Sterling's face twitches as though he's having a particularly disturbing dream. Nate wonders what could be unsettling to _him_. Nothing seems to shock or surprise Sterling. Irritate, yes. A great many things irritate the man which is why it can be so easy to mess with him, yet paradoxically so hard. As soon as he knows that someone is doing it on purpose, the entire game changes. Other people would get mad. Sterling doesn't even waste time getting ieven/i. He goes straight for the win. Nate's not sure if Sterling even knows _how_ to lose. He certainly doesn't know how to walk away.

That's another scary thought. A couple of times in their recent adversity Nate could swear Sterling has been off his game. It's not like him to become fixated on a single target like he did in the gallery robbery, nor is it like him to slip up like he did, tipping his hand when it came to that evidence locker. Where was the _come on, Nate, do you really think I'd only keep one copy? Oh and thanks for admitting to charges of breaking into a federal facility and destroying evidence._ gloat? After all, that is his self admitted philosophy. I_t's not about prizes or glory, those are just ways of making sure your opponent gets the message._ The man's own words after Nate accused him of lusting after that big corner office he so recently gave up. Only for Sterling would such a move – from the inner-circle of one of the world's biggest corporations to the relatively low prestige of being just another Interpol agent – make sense. He'd achieved all he could at IYS, and the role of vice-president with its meetings, conferences and golf outings really didn't suit him. Hand Sterling a golf club and his first instinct would be to swing it at somebody's kneecaps.

It's a lesson Nate has tried to drive into his team. Don't underestimate Sterling. The man puts a lot of effort into making sure people do that. He doesn't try to hide the fact that he's shorter than average and those expensive suits go a long way towards giving the impression that he wouldn't know what to do in a physical confrontation. The truth is, Elliot is lucky Sterling wanted their help. He could have done a lot more damage if he'd chosen to. Maybe he wouldn't have won – Elliot is who he is for a reason, after all – but it would have been a hell of a lot bloodier. Nate once saw Sterling put a man half his size again in the hospital, and not even break a sweat doing it. Just because he sees violence as a last resort doesn't mean he isn't very, very good at it.

However, none of that explains why Sterling is here, now. There is no good reason for him to be risking a stiff neck or sore back from sleeping in a cheap, uncomfortable chair instead of an expensive hotel bed. Nate will still be here in the morning for an inadmissible interrogation. The only thing that does is the terrifying notion that on some deep-down, never-seen-the-light-of-day level, Sterling actually_ likes_ him. Sterling, as far as Nate has ever known, doesn't like anybody. The friendlier he is, the more likely it is to be a set-up.

He closes his eyes again. It must be the drugs, that he can even imagine such a thing, drugs and maybe some form of DTs. That is an easier truth to accept than the alternative. He'll go to sleep and wake up to find it was just a bad dream, and that Sterling wasn't even here.

Then in a world that makes sense, he'll figure out what to do next.


End file.
